Barton Promises Bipartisan Telecom Bill by March
Citing the DTV transition mandate he helped pass, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) said Wed. he’s ready to deliver telecom bills he hopes President Bush can sign in 2006. “It’s time to stop talking and to start working,” said Barton, saying he plans to meet next week with Ranking Member Dingell (D-Mich.), Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.), Ranking Member Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) -- the main artisans behind the draft “BITs” telecom bill. His panel has made “tremendous progress” on the bill and expects introduction in Feb. or early March, with a hearing and markup to follow, Barton told an Internet conference,
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“The first question out of the box will be: ‘What are you going to do if the Senate won’t take it up?'” Barton said. “I'd like to say ‘Shoot the Senate.’ But I don’t want to get off on that one,” he said: “We'll come to that bridge when we have to.” The focus is readying the most accommodating bipartisan draft possible, and getting it out as fast as possible, Barton said. Mindful of the brief legislative calendar, he said he thinks the House should demonstrate it’s “willing to act” rather than let the Senate move first: “If we just wait on the Senate, I don’t see much happening. These issues are complex, and I don’t think the Senate is as far along as we are. Individual senators are right on the bead, but generically the Senate is not as focused as we are.”
The bill needs to address net neutrality, but it will be difficult to get the right policy, Barton said. “We need to preserve the open quality of the Internet without throttling innovation,” Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) told us: “But the burden is going to be upon us to adopt principles that can do that.” Acknowledging the debate’s complexity, Boucher voiced optimism that lawmakers are beginning to grasp the principles and sort out the motivations. But network neutrality could be one of the bill’s tougher points of discussion, he said. On a broader scale, Barton said he recently told President Bush no U.S. economic issue outranks telecom industry competitiveness. “These are big issues, with big consequences,” he said.
The universal service fund (USF) is another rewrite issue. Barton said he'd like to “repeal” USF, a stance he’s taken before. But he’s not sure where the committee stands on USF, he quickly added: “We're going to have to decide.” He gave a nod to Boucher’s work on a USF draft with Rep. Terry (R-Neb.). “We're releasing a 2nd draft and may have a 3rd before releasing a bill,” Boucher said: “We're just about there.” Boucher’s draft bill would use USF funding to boost broadband deployment in rural areas.
The panel plans a “collegial” markup next week on the data protection bill, Barton said: “It’s a slam dunk -- we're going to have a strong bill coming into full committee next week and we hope to get full resolution.” Barton hopes to introduce “this week or next week” a bill to guard consumer cell phone record privacy, he said. His panel shouldn’t have trouble building bipartisan consensus for the bill, he said, noting he heard a staffer say at last week’s hearing (CD Feb 2 p2): “This is going to be a lovefest.”